WHEATLAND - The Wheatland tornado ripped through the town in a matter of minutes, but people are just now starting to pick up the pieces, after a long winter.

TODAY’S TMJ4’s Brian Gotter visited Wheatland to see how two of the families we talked to in January are doing today.

(([karen]
"We'll get through it. We'll never forget it. We got each other. That'll do it. We've gone this long together. Guess we can stick it out through this too,” Karen Kerkman said.

Like dozens of families in Wheatland, Ken and Karen Kerkman lost almost everything in the storm, but with the help of the family's construction company, they're slowly piecing their lives back together.

TODAY’S TMJ4’s Brian Gotter: “Will you ever be back to normal?

“No. No, never will. We could have built the same exact house here, but it's going to take 35 years to put the trees back that were here. No, it'll never be how it was,” Ken Kerkman said.

Despite the changes, they feel lucky to be alive.

“I guess maybe it made us stronger. We take life for granted. Business is good, we had a nice home, a healthy family...makes you stop and think,” Ken Kerkman said.

Just down the road, the scene is similar, as construction begins on the Moore family's home.

“I've been told if there's any silver lining to this, it's that we lost it all. That it's the people who lost a fraction of the house...those are the people who need to fight a little more for their insurance money,” Liz Moore said.

The one room that's still intact is the wine cellar. That's where Liz’s daughter Megan ran for safety. Megan was the only one home at the time of the storm.

“I don't think there's a day goes by I don't think of that, but I gotta keep telling myself, we have to move forward....not think of what could happened. We just have to, you know, start over,” Liz Moore said.

For more on how the people of Wheatland are doing today, watch the TODAY’S TMJ4 weather special “Safe From The Storm.” It airs Friday, April 18 at 7:00 p.m. on TODAY’S TMJ4.